LONG BEACH, Calif. — Delta Air Lines has introduced an accessible flight map, designed for use by flyers with visual impairment.
The feature is now available on 171 aircraft and will be enabled on more than 600 planes before the holidays, said Ekrem Dimbiloglu, the airline's managing director of customer experience.
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It's impact, he explained, will be substantial since nearly half of Delta customers use the flight map feature on their seatback screen at some point during a flight, and 20% of flyers make the flight map their only engagement with the seatback screen.
"It's about bringing accessibility to everyone who flies on us," Dimbiloglu said during a presentation Tuesday at the Airline Passenger Experience Association (APEX) and Future Travel Experience (FTE) conference here. "I'm excited because this is a great proof point. We're not solving everything, but we're making huge strides."
Delta flyers can access accessibility mode from the setback flight map. Photo Credit: Provided by Delta Air Lines
Flyers can opt to use the accessible map instead of the standard flight map application with a single screen tap. For ease of use, it offers streamlined information, with fewer cities and geographical features than the standard map. It also has larger fonts and icons, and it utilizes a high-contrast, simple color palette for easier visibility. A voice narration feature is in the works, with a targeted introduction of next year.
Delta fine-tuned the accessible map feature in conjunction with the product's developer, FlightPath3D. After FlightPath3D presented a prototype to Delta in May, the carrier showed the application to its 20-person Advisory Board on Disability in Atlanta, which suggested refinements. Rollout of the product came just 13 months after research began, explained Dimbiloglu, which is unusually swift in the airline industry.
Both he and FlightPath3D president Duncan Jackson said they want to see the accessible product deployed by other airlines.
"It can't just be dollars and cents. We're doing the right thing," said Dimbiloglu.
Jackson said about 400 million people per year use the standard FlightPath3D product. He'd like to the accessible map application to be equally as available.
"We need to get it out to everybody," he said. "We have to make it a moral imperative."